This page was started when I heard about Ontario Government's plans to wash their hands of control of huge tracts of forest. Then it was called "Partnership for Public Lands," but has since been recycled into "Wild Ontario." The page grew as a result of the radio program Earthgauge on CKCU which provided a wealth of relavent information between 2012-2013.

Click for the Rain Forest

I started this web site in 1997 as a small voice with a passion for something that wasn't getting nearly enough publicity. I remember thinking as a boy in the fifties that car exhaust must be damaging the environment, but no one else seemed to think it was a problem. Nowadays you can scarcely watch the news without more revelations about climate change, most of them from scientists warning polititians that their duty is to treat the matter seriously and do something. But it takes far more vision and leadership to know what to do, since almost every strategy would be hugely expensive and liable to failure, and failure in our democracy means someone else even less aware will take over, and seeing the enormity of the problem and the likely result of trying to do something, will concentrate on other priorities. This is President Trump's position. Bob Dylan warned us that the greatest fear is that of bringing children into our world, and as birth rates fall in many nations it seems he was right in this as in so many other warnings he gave as a 22 year old. The issue (in case you tuned out a few years ago) is to what extent climate change is caused by human activity. Maybe I should add cow activity to this since our love of beef has resulted in millions of cows pumping methane into the atmosphere. If we had a world dictator who orders the slaughter of all cows and takes meat off the shelves, while outlawing internal combustion engines, and closing down coal mines worldwide, we might offset the inevitable, but that is the scale (if not the description) of action needed, and noone would vote such a leader into power if only because 90% of voters vote in accordance with their own selfish interests instead of the interests of society as a whole.

The Ecological Footprint developed by William Rees and Mathis Wackernagel gives us a tool to measure the damage being done to the earth by human activities. Quantitative analysis shows how misguided we have been thus far in countering the dramatic shifts ushered in by industrial revolutions which have led us to value economic growth so highly, when the results of this growth are the source of the major challenges facing us. Until we figure out better tragets for advanced economies than ever increasing wealth, the future is not bright. I urge you to listen to Bill Rees from UBC (links in the left column) for a radical shift in your understanding of ecology.

Preserving and Cherishing the Earth
In 1990, Carl Sagan spearheaded an open letter to the world's religious leaders. This led to various initiatives including The Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale, energizing men of faith to join with ecologists in their efforts.

Christmas poses a problem
Christmas excess from unrecylable wrapping paper to unnecessary gifts is a serious environmantal issue. Gifts that Matter.ca provides a solution, and may neatly solve your gift problem for that loved one who really doesn't need or want another irrelevant trinket.

Climate Change
I don't know why it has taken me so long to appreciate the extreme seriousness of this issue. I read The Weather Makers by Tim Flannery, and had an epiphany. Here is a crisis that needs full international cooperation to solve, without interference from the vested interests that have so successfully blocked any progress away from fossil fuels. But it is also an issue to which every one of us, particularly house owners can make a difference. Organizations dedicated to publicizing climate change include ClimatDots.org, 350.org, and of course Earthday More recently I read Michael Crichton's State of Fear which postulates that the scare over global warming may be more a media/governemnt plot to keep people in line by a continuous state of fear than any scientific evidence that global warming is man made. Crichton's thesis is well and truly debunked here and here.

CPAWS, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society is a group focussing on the preservation of forests. Forest clear cutting and wetlands destruction are responsible for about one-third of all the extra greenhouse gases humans have put into the atmosphere since the start of the Industrial Revolution. New forests are more efficient as absorbers of carbon dioxide than existing forests; hence the drive for replanting after clearcutting.

In May 2009 the TAPS Program from Show me the green.ca reached us in Ottawa, distributing to customers water conserving taps and showerheads reducing water consumption by up to 65%, and four compact fluorescent light bulbs, using 75% less electricity. Bravo!